A FRIEND of mine had been carrying on some gospel work in a village of North Aberdeenshire. On the morning of his departure he went by permission into a workshop, to give a last word to some young converts. A number of dressmakers and milliners were busy there, and amongst them was a girl whom my friend had not seen before. So addressing her, he said—
"I don't think I have seen you before. Have you been at any of these meetings?”
“No, sir; it was quite out of my power to get to any of them.”
“Well, then," he said, "may I ask you the most important question of all? Are you saved?”
“I hope so, sir.”
“Ah, but that is not enough for your salvation; you must have something more than that.”
“Well, sir, I am trying to do my best.”
“Ah, my young friend, your doing is all in vain. The work was completed eighteen hundred years ago. Suppose, now, you had that dress finished: what would you think if anyone were to come in and begin to add to and do your work over again?”
“Well, sir," she said, "I would think it needless, and feel very much hurt. But," she continued, "I have been brought up to work out my own salvation.”
“Very good; but when did you get salvation? Can you tell me that?”
“No.”
“Well, how can you work out what you have not got?”
“But how can I get salvation?”
“By accepting Christ, who offers you salvation, full and free. Take your place as a lost sinner before God, and by a simple faith accept Christ's finished work. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.' (Acts 16:31.) ‘By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.' (Eph. 2:8, 9.) Now promise me that you will read those texts when you go home, and see what God's word says about it," he added as he left, the time granted for the interview being over.
I have reason to believe that that conversation was the means of blessing to that girl's soul. She did search the Scriptures, and she saw for herself, in God's word, that she was lost by nature, and that Christ suffered the penalty of sin. She was led to see that "doing is a deadly thing," and that "doing ends in death." Christ showed her her need of a Saviour, and He showed Himself as her Saviour.
Reader, have you seen your need, and accepted Jesus as your Saviour? or are you still like this girl, doing your best, and hoping, in some vague indefinite way, to get to heaven. Jesus only is the Door; by Him, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. K. R.